"CEOs on Soapboxes" from Corporate Board Member addresses whether and how boards should weigh in on the CEO's public pronouncements, opinions, and/or comments on social and political issues in the context of evolving customer, employee, investor and other stakeholder expectations of CEO involvement and social media implications. The sound advice based on input from directors, CEOs, advisers and governance experts generally consists of the board establishing a policy - which should be regularly (at least quarterly) reviewed and tweaked as appropriate based on relevant employee and external views - on which topics or types of topics the CEO will chime in on and in what manner.
This input from one company executive and director is instructive:
Leaders can minimize the potential for negative fallout by confining themselves to topics related to their businesses or impacting their constituencies, noted Honest Tea Co-Founder Seth Goldman, a board member at several food startups. He expects the CEOs of those companies to speak out about regulatory and legislative proposals concerning food standards but advises chiefs to be wary of weighing in publicly on issues that "other people are protesting but aren't really relevant to the business or don't help us communicate what we're about."
Another company executive and multi-company director comments: "'There should be an open discussion by the board about what the policy should be and how it reflects the norms of the company. There's not one size that fits all.'"